2025 Italy, Day 31: Montegrotto

If you would like to see details about our journey, check out our itinerary and our bike route.

Spa day!

First, we had to get through a few hours of heat on the bikes, but the ride was flat and we made good time to our thermal spa hotel in Montegrotto, just outside Padua. Our room was ready when we arrived. We check right in and showered.

By 14:00, we were wandering down the hall looking for the thermal pools. A staff person found us and handed us off to the guy in charge of the pool, he led us to the woman who dispensed towels and sold us swim caps (mandatory in the pools), she pointed the way through the spa to the poolside bistro where we bought drinks and snacks, and finally, we made our way to lounge chairs on the pool deck. For a couple of hours, we dipped in the pools (warm, not hot), lounged, drank, read, dozed.

About 16:00, we showered in the spa and dragged ourselves back to our room.

By 17:00, we were back in the spa, sitting on a heated bench, waiting for our couple's massage. An hour later, limp and relaxed, we put our hotel-supplied robes and slippers back on and waddled back to our room, where we took another shower. (I think that puts us at three showers in as many hours.)

Next, we changed into nice clothes for dinner. We had booked our meal at the hotel, not knowing that the day we were there was Italy's biggest summer festival, Ferragosto, the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. A couple of days ago, we got a message from the hotel telling us they would be celebrating with a gala called Italy on a Plate, with tables set up around the pools, live music, and a 7-course tasting menu of regional Italian dishes. We were encouraged to dress up and wear something yellow.

We were seated at a table next to the pool, handed glasses of sparkling wine and a bag of bread and crackers, and the music and fun began.

Welcome water in a park. Our navigation app shows the locations of potable public water on our routes. Sometimes the faucets are old, covered with cobwebs, and not exactly what we trust. But this one was new and the water was pristine and cold.

A rousing song and dance by ladies wearing yellow flower hats kicked off the party by the pool in the evening.

2025 Italy, Day 30: Vicenza, Night 2 of 2

If you would like to see details about our journey, check out our itinerary and our bike route.

Today was a rest and immerse ourselves in architecture day.

We started with breakfast in the apartment. We got to the tourist office, a 10-minute walk away, about 9:45, and bought tickets to enter four Palladio sites in the city. 

First was the Teatro Olimpico, next to the tourist office. It was amazing.

Second was the Palazzo Chiericati Museo Civico. Also amazing.

Third was the of Chiesa di Santa Maria Nova. Amazing, beautiful, peaceful. 

Then we walked by a deli, everything in the window looked delicious, we went in and bought lunch and dinner, we took the bag of food to Piazza Matteotti in front of the civic museum and ate our lunch in the shade.

It was around 13:00 by then, and the sun was so hot that we went back to the apartment and read and slept.

For dinner, we cooked up the ravioli with pesto sauce for me and pomodoro sauce for Ken, from the deli.

Went out for a stroll after dinner. It was cooler. We ran into the same little girl who had been looking for bread last night. Tonight she was with just her mother, and they were on their way to buy supplies for the little girl's first day at big-girl school. She looked like she was about three. Her mother is from Bratislava, her dad is from Chicago and works on the military base outside of town.

We continued our walk until Ken found gelato and cake. I held out for a glass of wine in our apartment after the walk.

Again, I'm not going to caption all the photos from our day.

The set of the Teatro Olimpico was completed in 1585, and it has been in place ever since, except for a brief period when it was stored in the basement during WWII. It is built of wood and painted. It is an astonishing work of perspective, appearing to stretch for blocks in what is actually about 60 feet. During performances, dwarves strolled at the far end of the street, and the light fixtures on the buildings used smaller and smaller wicks and glass globes, to enhance the appearance of distance.

Learning about this classic set helped me to understand a little how the designers of theater sets now think. I have always been intrigued by the techniques that set designers use in creating a theater experience. I now understand just a little bit that they study the work of others, including historical works, and draw on ideas from everywhere as they interpret a theater piece.

Really good pastry and gelato shops are a little harder to find, but well worth the search.

The civic museum was one of the most effectively curated collections I have seen. Visitors were guided through rooms and floors that connected works presented in chronological order, carefully signed with brief descriptions that tied the pieces together. When I have time, I will return to this page and add some captions that share the insight gleaned from the notes provided by the curators.

2025 Italy, Day 29: Vicenza, Night 1 of 2

If you would like to see details about our journey, check out our itinerary and our bike route.

We followed the mostly flat cycle path along the Adige River most of the day, rolling through farms, vineyards, and little villages. It was quiet and peaceful. The main challenge was again the heat.

About halfway through the journey, we came around a bend and spotted an beautifully preserved medieval walled city and fortress at Soave. If we had known about it, we might have planned to spend a night there. But we didn't; there's always something to save for next time. 

We took frequent breaks to fight the heat, eating snacks on a bench in shade at one point, topping for pastries, coffee, water, tea, and lemon soda (yes, all at the same time) in a cafe that had AC (for once, we left the bikes outside alone, while we went inside and cooled off; we rarely do that, but really, the heat is a huge challenge right now).

At one point, we ran into a huge construction project, where it appears that they are moving the river underground and have temporarily drained it for several miles. The vineyards along this stretch were crispy brown; that was sad to see. The cycle path was torn up and blocked off, but we found an easy detour on farm roads.

Our apartment was not ready for us when we arrived in Vicenza, so we found a little trattoria and had some lunch.

The apartment has AC. Very few places in Italy have AC, though it seems to be more prevalent on this trip than on previous travels here. When I was booking accommodations, I didn't even look at whether that was an amenity. We have always just accepted that traveling in Italy meant putting up with heat. But we truly have not experienced heat like this years', and we are very glad to have AC right now.

The usual routine: showers, groceries, dinner (a good pizza nearby), and a short walk around the neighborhood. We met a little girl about three, who was out looking for bread, and her parents. Vicenza is much quieter than Verona, much less touristy, and our apartment is in a neighborhood with families and dogs out walking in the evening.

Vicenza is a UNESCO World Heritage site that protects the works of architect Andrea Palladio (1508-1580).

Our neighborhood in Vicenza.

A sculpture and fountain in the little piazza near our apartment.

When we first entered the construction zone on the bike path to Vicenza, the path was in pretty good condition and we kept going.

After a little while, the path was not in such good shape, and we looked for a detour.

A lovely old villa out in the country along the Adige River.

Vicenza is quieter and less touristy than Verona.

The Tore Bissara and Basilica Palladiana in Piazza dei Signori.

Detail showing the loggia of the basilica. Though many of the major buildings in Vicenza appear to be built of marble, they are in fact constructed of brick and timber, faced with stucco, and painted or textured to look like stone. These building materials were used to save money.

Palladio is known for a classical Roman style, including loggias, columns, arches, and round windows.

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Sometimes barriers are just meant to be ignored.